Bautista moved to WSBK in 2019 with Ducati after losing his ride in MotoGP, previously serving nine years in the class riding Suzuki, Honda, Aprilia and Ducati machinery.
The double WSBK champion will make his first MotoGP appearance since the 2018 Valencia GP this weekend in Malaysia as a wildcard with Ducati.
Bautista hasn’t ridden the GP23 since his last test on it in August at Misano and joked KTM test rider Pedrosa’s impressive wildcard showings at Jerez and Misano have put “more pressure” on his own outing.
“That especially [makes] everybody put more pressure [on me] because they say ‘Dani can do it’,” Bautista said on Thursday at Sepang when asked if he could expect to replicate Pedrosa’s form.
“No, but Dani is in a very different situation because Dani has lots of kilometres on the KTM and he was really fast in Misano.
“For sure, he missed some racing pace and for sure he can even do better because missing racing is always more difficult when you have to race with other riders.
“In my case, it’s the opposite, I have race pace but I miss some experience with the bike.
Source: Autosport